Fall has come and gone here in New England, but winter has yet to fully arrive, so we’ll call this “cold-Autumn”, or “Frozen-Mud-Season”. It’s been hovering within a few degrees of freezing for the past week or so, occasionally dipping a bit below at night, but nothing we can’t handle. While it dropped to 16 earlier this morning, and there’s a winter storm advisory for the next couple of days, we’ve got plenty of firewood stacked up, some food in the pantry, a deck of cards, and each other.
There’s currently a lull in the barn work, as the foundation guys now are waiting for our timber framer to replace the sill under the front of the barn door, then they can finish up the cap stones in front, and the front of the barn can be set down on a new, secure, foundation. Then they’ll dismantle the partition wall on the lower level, and prepare to take out what’s left of the stone wall that lays across the barn, holding it from sliding down the hill. Once a new poured concrete wall is set in, the barn can be fully set on its new foundation. There will still be a lot of work needed, such as siding, interior structure, floor patching/rebuilding, and such, but these are things we can be a part of, rather than just spectators. In the photo below, you can see how they will finish the foundation wall as two-sided, so the drainage system is hidden between the two walls of boulders. Once they level it off, the drainage system will be covered with a membrane, then soil, so we can plant hostas and impatiens there.
One of the things we’ve wrapped up recently was the rebuilding of a window sash from the upstairs bathroom. Most of the windows in the house are period, if not original, and are showing their age. We started out by just replacing a pane of glass that Jenny accidentally broke while hunting down an especially evasive housefly, but when the panes were all pulled out, we found that one of the muntin bars was missing, and the pane was just being held in by glazing putty (face-palm). Jenny, having become quite the frugal, resourceful Yankee, patched it up using an awl, toothpicks, wood glue and a chiseled-down piece of scrap wood. Good as new!
Another thing we wrapped up, well, for the winter anyway, is the rebuilding of the roof on our shed. A large tree fell on the shed several years ago, tearing holes in both sides of the roof as well as the gable end. We patched in a replacement rafter we cut from a board we pulled from our stock in the barn, tore off four rotted-through layers of old shingles/tar paper, patched the sheathing on the west side of the roof (again, using scrap boards from our stock in the barn), then nailed on new shingles. Next spring, we’ll do the same to the east side of the roof, then we can rebuild the doors, fix the windows, add some tie beams/braces, pour in some gravel to level off the floor, then we can park the MG in there (the shed is 12′ x 24′, or the size of a one-car garage.) The shed is currently holding a couple of cords of firewood. When that becomes seasoned by the time spring rolls around, we will move it into the barn.
Jenny has rekindled her love for splitting wood, as she just hasn’t had much of an opportunity outside of the occasional cabin/vacation trip until we moved out here. One day last week, while I was doing some winterization on the house, she bucked, split, and stacked an entire cord. By hand.
We’ve also been enjoying a few sunny days out on the local trails. One nearby trail we recently checked out is at Miller State Park, just on the other side of Peterborough, and just 10-11 miles from the house. Miller State Park is the oldest park in New Hampshire, and includes the peaks of Pack Monadnock and North Monadnock of the Wapack range (visible through the trees from our kitchen window). We drove the auto road to the top of Pack Monadnock for incredible views of the Boston skyline, Mount Washington and the White Mountains, as well as nearby Mount Monadnock, and the Green Mountains of Vermont. While we did do a little hiking, we had to keep Tennessee on a leash (he doesn’t normally need one, as he stays close-by) because there was a lot of porcupine activity in the area. It was a good thing, as we nearly stepped on one that was standing within inches of the trail. Otherwise, it’s a beautiful park, and I’m sure we’ll spend more time there soon.
We’ve spent some time this week clearing downed and dead trees along the old tractor path, as we wish to build a trail around the hillside to walk the dog. We also want to build a fire pit patio on the upper area of the path, as there is already a line of boulders that can be used as a windbreak. We spent quite a bit of time clearing a couple of fallen trees in this area, some dead, diseased, or broken trees, as well as thinning some that were way too crowded to let go much longer. We’ll also trim up the canopy where needed to increase sight lines and expose the rock walls down the path. The first image below is what it looked like for the most part (actually worse, but I forgot to take a “before”), the others are what it looks like cleared and thinned. The fire pit area will be in the area shown in the bottom photo.
With winter approaching, or threatening to, we’re eagerly anticipating the delivery and installation of our 500 gallon propane tank, which will be buried to the side of our barn door/driveway. We’ve been using a small temporary tank, but after last night, we were down to 5% remaining. Since we weren’t sure exactly when they would be able to deliver more, Jenny conserved propane by cooking breakfast on the coals of the hearth! The driver did show up just after breakfast to fill us up, so at least we’ll be able to stay warm until the permanent tank is installed and filled next week.
We are making daily progress on transforming this house into something we feel honors Daniel and Abigail, and for the love that they put into it when they built it and enjoyed living in it for 53 years. There are hard, muddy, tiring days, but we truly love what we’re doing, so it all seems so easy, and the time so quick. I can’t imagine spending my days any other way.
Take care, until next time. Don’t forget to leave us a comment if there is something you want to hear more about, or you have any questions. Also, don’t forget that all images, plus additional ones, can be found full-sized in the Gallery link at the top of the page.
Thanks for following along!
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